Revenue and operating profit both topped analyst forecasts, though North America like-for-like sales fell 2% on weaker consumer sentiment
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Pandora reported first-quarter revenue of 7.11 billion Danish kroner ($1.12 billion), beating analyst expectations of 7.09 billion kroner in a company-compiled poll, even as comparable sales in North America fell 2% due to weaker consumer sentiment. Pandora stock jumped 11% on the results.
At 1.49 billion kroner, operating profit came in well above the 1.28 billion kroner analysts had penciled in, according to Reuters, though the figure still represented a 9.3% decline from the prior-year period. A research note from RBC Capital Markets flagged that all three top-line metrics cleared the bar, with revenue, gross profit, and operating profit finishing 1%, 4%, and 17% above consensus estimates, respectively, according to WWD.
Organic growth for the quarter reached 2%, in line with full-year guidance of negative 1% to positive 2%. Like-for-like growth was flat overall. Tariffs, rising commodity costs, and unfavorable currency moves combined to pull the EBIT margin down to 20.9%, compared with 22.3% in the same period last year.
North America and EMEA each posted like-for-like declines of 2%, while Asia-Pacific grew 12% and Latin America 6%. CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier, who took over on Jan. 1, said a deepening K-shaped economy is weighing on mid- and low-income shoppers. "The high-income consumers continue to have a good time and it is mainly the middle and the low (income consumers) with high inflation, high interest rates, high fuel prices... so they are disproportionately impacted," she told Reuters.
Lower marketing outlays contributed to the operating profit outperformance, de Pablos-Barbier acknowledged, though she stressed that the budget will remain flat across the full year. "The intention is not to spend less, it is to spend better," she told Reuters. Social media and earned media are becoming a larger priority as Pandora redirects where its marketing dollars flow.
Design strategy is also getting a refresh, with the company aiming to develop collections that feel more culturally specific and can open up consumer segments where Pandora has historically had limited presence. A tie-in with the Netflix $NFLX hit Bridgerton, released during the quarter, was held up as a template for how sharply differentiated products can generate wider interest in the brand.
Pandora's full-year 2026 guidance remains unchanged: organic revenue growth of negative 1% to positive 2% and an EBIT margin of 21% to 22%. Current trading in the second quarter shows about flat like-for-like growth, the company said.
Pandora is the world's largest jewelry brand, selling through more than 7,000 points of sale across more than 100 countries. The Copenhagen-based company generated revenue of 32.5 billion kroner in 2025.
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